31.9. 9. How the Church Lands were converted into Fiefs.
The use of the fiscal lands should have been only to serve as a donation by which the
kings were to encourage the Franks to undertake new expeditions, and by
which, on the other hand, these fiscal lands were increased. This, as I
have already observed, was the spirit of the nation; but these donations
took another turn. There is still extant a speech of Chilperic,
[79]
grandson of Clovis, in which he complains that almost all these lands
had been already given away to the church. "Our exchequer," says he, "is
impoverished, and our riches are transferred to the clergy;
[80]
none
reign now but the bishops, who live in grandeur while we are quite
eclipsed."
This was the reason that the mayors, who durst not attack the lords,
stripped the churches; and one of the motives alleged by Pepin for
entering Neustria
[81]
was his having been invited thither by the clergy
to put a stop to the encroachments of the kings, that is, of the mayors,
who deprived the church of all her possessions.
The Mayors of Austrasia, that is the family of the Pepins, had
behaved towards the clergy with more moderation than those of Neustria
and Burgundy. This is evident from our chronicles,
[82]
in which we see
the monks perpetually extolling the devotion and liberality of the
Pepins. They themselves had been possessed of the first places in the
church. "One crow does not pull out the eyes of another"; as Chilperic
said to the bishops.
[83]
Pepin subdued Neustria and Burgundy; but as his pretence for
destroying the mayors and kings was the grievances of the clergy, he
could not strip the latter without acting inconsistently with his cause,
and showing that he made a jest of the nation. However, the conquest of
two great kingdoms and the destruction of the opposite party afforded
him sufficient means of satisfying his generals.
Pepin made himself master of the monarchy by protecting the clergy;
his son, Charles Martel, could not maintain his power but by oppressing
them. This prince, finding that part of the regal and fiscal lands had
been given either for life, or in perpetuity, to the nobility, and that
the church by receiving both from rich and poor had acquired a great
part even of the allodial estates, he resolved to strip the clergy; and
as the fiefs of the first division were no longer in being, he formed a
second.
[84]
He took for himself and for his officers the church-lands
and the churches themselves; thus he remedied an evil which differed
from ordinary diseases, as its extremity rendered it the more easy to
cure.
Footnotes
[79]
In Gregory of Tours, book vi, chap. 46.
[80]
This is what induced him to annul the testaments made in favour
of the clergy, and even the donations of his father; Gontram
re-established them, and even made new donations. — Gregory of Tours,
book vii, chap. 7.
[81]
See the "Annals of Metz," year 687.
[82]
See the "Annals of Metz."
[83]
In Gregory of Tours.
[84]
From "Ex Chronica Centulensi," lib. ii.
